I have found a nice group of A&A players here on the other side of the world- and have been able to play twice in the last 2 weeks. In both cases we played A&A: Europe- 'cause one of the players is new to A&A and Europe is a good begiunning game (here, play the USA).

I played Germany both times. The first time, there are a lot of errors (inclusind forgetting to place the UK's transports) and a huge mental mistake on my part where I forgot that you can only build one unit on Stalingrad if you take it. In the end, we had a draw- though I was pretty much spent and the German coast was looking at a lot of transports and Detroyers.

The second game, last night, went much better. In 2 hours I had the allies conced as I was knocking on the Moscow door with something like 4 infantry, 8 armor, 3 fighters, and 3 bombers (against 4 infantry). I played well for the first time in a while. However, I came to a conclusion- the best players are the ones that purchase and place the best. I won that last game because I had a good bonus build (the bonus $12 you get to buy whatever you want before the game starts)- I bought 3 artillery and placed them in Finland. I also did well in my purchasing- getting 4-5 armor each round with extra units as I needed them (usually bouncing between bombers or 2 subs).

The kicker to the game was as I was stricking towards Moscow, I brought my 3 bombers over Leningrad and IPC bombed for $11. The Soviets were facing a next build of 3 infantry and conceded after that. I usually do not like to IPC bomb, but have been warming up to the idea the more I think about situations where it could be devastating.

I tried playing axis and allies before, but I never really got the hang of it, which is sad as I am a huge ww2 addict. Jason talks about it, and I thought about setting up a day to play some instead of playing vampire. I do, however, look forward to playing the computer game they're making of it. It's gonna be an RTS game, and the trailer looks good.

If you do get into it, go find a copy of the Revised game. By all accounts, it is even better than the first. Get Jason to play you- he is always good for a game.

If you are looking for some good boardgames set in WWII, may I suggest either: Memoir '44, 3rd Reich, or if you are really ambitious, Advanced Squad Leader. A&A is a low intensity startegy game. It is not terribly wedded to the specifics of WWII, but is a spectaularly fun game to play.

I just tried out the demo for the game. Graphics are eh. Gameplay is eh. It doesn't seem to have anything to set it apart from other RTS. It may be just because it's a demo... but overall I am unimpressed.

Germany:Strong Industry: gets $18 to start with in order to do their per-game pruchase. The Allies stay with $12.

Luftwaffe: In any attack where a German armor and fighters participate- the armor upgrades its attack to a "4." This functions just like the "upgrade" artillery give to infantry but only fuctions on a 1:1 ratio of fighters to armor. Thus, if an attack features 3 German armor and 2 german fighters... only 2 of the armor get the upgraded attack.

Russia: Impressed Troops: Can create infantry outside of factories. In these cases, the Russian player can create infantry yp to the IPC value of the region. Thus, if a region is worth 2 IPCs, the Russian player can create 2 infantry per turn on that section. This special ability is only available in Russian "home territories" ie: Dark red. (not pink).

UK: Partiasns: At the beginning of the UK turn, they may roll a die. If it comes up anything but a 1 the UK player may place a free infantry piece on any core German territory (light brown).

US: Paratroopers: The U.S. may purchase paratroopers. For $5 the US player gets an paratrooper unit (that must be represented differently than normal American infantry). The stats for the unit are 1 on attack, 2 on defence. The special ability for the Paratrooper is to "jump" 2 spaces. The paratrooper may cross any terrain in their "jump" and are only involved in combat in the territory they land in. However, if the paratrooper "jumps" through or into a region defended by a AA Gun, the defending player may use the gun as normal. Paratroopers count as aircraft for the purposes of being destroyed in the AA firing round. Thus, paratroopers may not make it to their depolyed position if they "jump"- though they may move like normal infantry and avoid being shot at by AA.

Got to play again- this time I played Europe as the UK. Did an okay job, though I was torn as I had a totally new player playing the U.S. and a relatively new player playing the Soviets- so I ended up oscillating between giving my allies a lot of advice and trying to bite my tongue and allow them to play their own game.

In the end we won, but mostly due to a tactical error on the part of the Germans rather than some explosively unique play on our part. The UK and US were having trouble coordinating our invasion of the West. The US and UK focused on repeated and small invasion foces into Denmark and France- forcing the Germans to constantly relocate a small amount of their forces to counter-attack... and siphoning away critical armor and artillery forces from the Eastern Front.

The end came with the German player overextended their invasion force by attacking a vulnerable Leningrad. The assault left his 14 Armor vulnerable to counter-attack and, indeed, in the subsequent turn saw a concentrated Soviet counterattack that decimated the German Armor stack and left the invasion of Russia stalled. At that point, the game was basically over, with a large invasion fleet massing in the English channel and a counter-attack by the Germans into Russia at least 2 turns away.

The Allies struggled mightily in the Mid East (again) and it is something I am looking forward to correcting. Overall though, it was a great game.